Cork Airport sees 10% bump in passenger traffic

Cork Airport is celebrating one of the best years in its 63 year history, as it proved to be Ireland’s fastest growing airport with passenger traffic in 2024 up 10% on 2023.

In total, Cork Airport welcomed 3.1 million passengers last year.

The first three months of the year saw passenger traffic rise by 14%, 23%, and 25% respectively.

The commencement of the summer schedule brought the addition of new routes from Cork to Brussels Charleroi, Rhodes, and Zadar, while a new service to Glasgow commenced as part of the current winter schedule.

These new services, along with increased frequencies and capacity on existing services to Paris Charles de Gaulle as well as Frankfurt, all contributed to a bumper year, the airport said.

Among the best performing routes from Cork Airport during 2024 included Paris Beauvais, Valencia, Barcelona, Faro, Rhodes, London Gatwick, Malaga, Lanzarote, Palma, and Reus.

There were also significantly higher amounts of passengers traveling to and from some of Cork Airport’s key European markets.

Passenger traffic to and from Poland increased by 33%; traffic to and from Spain increased by 20%; traffic to and from France increased by 19% and traffic to and from Germany increased by 12%.

Cork Airport’s managing director, Niall MacCarthy, said: “2024 was an excellent year for Cork Airport with new routes and new airlines making our airport the fastest growing airport in Ireland and with the highest customer service standards.

“In 2025, we’re embarking on a number of capital projects to grow and improve the airport infrastructure and cater for the planned growth we have in the year ahead and the years following.

“We want to thank our loyal customer base, both in the South of Ireland, the UK and continental Europe for the continuing and growing use of Cork Airport.”